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June 15, 2014

Steampunk Sundays: Kraken King V & VI by Meljean Brook

The Kraken King

Meljean Brook

Iron Seas 4

Steampunk

May 2014

Intermix

The Kraken King, Part VThe Kraken King and the Iron Heart

With their lives and the fate of an empire at stake, Ariq is forced to leave Zenobia behind. Held captive by their enemies, Zenobia can only pray that Ariq keeps his promise to come for her—until a terrible loss prods her to action.

Ariq has no intention of handing over the Skybreaker to the two men responsible for the marauders’ attacks against Krakentown—but without a ransom to give them, Ariq must risk everything to rescue Zenobia and stop the swarming forces bent on destruction.

The Kraken King, Part VIThe Kraken King and the Crumbling Walls

Reunited, Ariq and Zenobia must journey over the red wall and make a desperate appeal to the one woman with enough power to halt the marauders’ plans—the Empress of Nippon.

But even the Kraken King cannot demand the attentions of an empress. Masked and quarantined, Ariq and Zenobia are forced to bide their time. Despite the fact that they are as physically close as two people can be, Zenobia is trying to keep the man she can’t help but love at a distance, terrified she’ll be hurt again. And all the while, the mysteries of the Living City grow around them

Man, this book is looong! I'd never thought I'd say it but I'm thankful THE KRAKEN KING is a serial otherwise it'll be one long epic adventure and I mean that literally!

So it's quite impossible not to read parts 5 and 6 back to back because of the events that happened. In part 4, Zenobia Fox was once again abducted for the nth time! So of course in The Kraken King and the Iron Heart, it's expected that Ariq will waste no time in rescuing her. And that he did single handedly with a little help from Zenobia of course. Aside from Ariq's daring rescue of his romantic interest, I'd like to highlight that something sad happened here. Zenobia's precious letters from Archimedes as well as the manuscript for the book she's working on were confiscated by her abductors and burned it. You might think, "But Braine, those are just letters," true but said missives were very important to Zenobia for a lot of reasons ranging from it's sentimental value to providing inspiration for her stories.

Quoting Ariq

I will not take anything you don't want to give, Zenobia Fox.My will is steel, wife. My body and heart are iron--but they are yours to break.

My favorite so far is part 6, The Kraken King and the Crumbling Walls. Why you ask? Because finally, after 5 parts of constant teasing, flirting, and seducing Zenobia, Ariq finally had some boom boom pow! It's sexy time LOL! But it's not just sex for the sake of sex, Zenobia and Ariq's romantic relationship made leaps and bounds here. I guess Zenobia's abduction was the necessary push needed for these two to finally take their attraction to the next level.

Ariq is such a complex hero and very traditional, very Asian, but still the gorgeous Alpha hero if that makes sense. There are slight nuances regarding Ariq's character vs other heroes in that his attraction to Zenobia didn't necessarily stem from her looks whereas the usual lead male responds to his love interest's female attributes. Not that Ariq is any better than them or is immune to Zenobia's wiles, it's just refreshing to read a hero that looked for and got attracted to the heroine's more substantial qualities than her superficial ones.

So it's a given that this serial is worth a try. And for those of you who are curious if you can read the Iron Seas books as stand-alone, yes you can. By Meljean Brooks' admission on her FB page, she said that the series doesn't have an overarching arc and from a reader who jumped to book 4 without reading the previous 3, I can guarantee that you won't feel lost. Zenobia might mention her brother but whatever happened in Archimedes' book bears no weight in THE KRAKEN KING.

I've been staying clear of serials because I get so nervous that I'll just never finish them. But I can see how a serial for a super long book would actually make a lot of sense. I haven't read any steam punk yet (I know!!! I want to, it just hasn't happened!) but this does sound like a great series!

I love the cover art on these books. Or novella's. Dang so its a bunch of novella's = one big book by the end of it all. Or just a bunch of novellas. Lots of novella sized reads going on at the moment about the traps. I'm only reading one at the moment and that is Lili St Germains, Gypsy Brothers serial novellas. They are very good! Glad you enjoying yourself :D